"It’s easy to trivialize the sentimental fuzzy thinking of a hormonal pre-adult. But, think again. Many of the fundamental beliefs you hold on to this very day were just tiny seedlings in youth, but that’s where they began. When I formulated the meaning of life, I took into account just two things: school, and girls. School was the linear thing I had to accomplish in order to be awesome, and girls were where I derived “feelings,” and if I met the right girl, I would be awesome. There are nuances. But simply put, rejection and acceptance were the only things that mattered, when there was a track to follow, a path to walk, a predefined matrix for success. The thing is, living in a binary is tiresome. It means you’re either one, or zero, and what that means is this: you are forever deciding whether you want to be in or out, whether you have been accepted or rejected, and whether you feel good or bad. Take away school, take away career, take away any urgent meaning that pushes you in that crucial one direction, and suddenly, you’re in a whirlwind of confusion, trying like mad to churn meaning from the chaotic soupy mess around you — you disappear into your mind. You become checked in — or checked out."